iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 13h

Ten sessions of eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing over five weeks, for adults diagnosed with 'personality disorders'. 📉 Symptoms fell more than on a waiting list. ⚖️ No active comparator yet. buff.ly/0lmdVCx #PersonalityDisorder #TraumaTherapy

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The PETRUSHKA trial paired prediction models with people's own side effect priorities when choosing an antidepressant. 💊 Fewer stopped by 8 weeks than with usual care. 🔍 Was it the algorithm or just being asked? buff.ly/IO39MOk #Antidepressants #SharedDecisionMaking

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A friend texts "we need to talk" late at night. What story fills the gap? 🔍 Meta-analysis of 295 samples: higher anxiety linked to reading ambiguity as threat, across ages and disorders. ❓ Which comes first is unknown. buff.ly/AJ8XKcD #Anxiety #InterpretationBias

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Perinatal mental health support in England used to stop when a baby turned one. GP records from 2m+ pregnancies: 5.9% had recorded mental illness in year two, over half new. 📂 Need is likely higher. Not everyone seeks help. buff.ly/RKJXPYy #PerinatalMentalHealth #MaternalMentalHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Cannabis legalisation isn't one policy. For-profit markets in Canada and the USA were linked to more use and stronger products, a new Lancet Psychiatry review found. 🇺🇾 Uruguay's state-run model showed no rise in youth use. buff.ly/yS6CFAg #Cannabis #DrugPolicy

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Films from Psycho to Joker cast mental illness as a threat. A review of 30 studies found a third of people with severe mental illness experienced violence in a year. Why don't the movies explore this? 🔎 Measures varied, so treat the pooled figure with care. buff.ly/WbifBJO #MentalHealth #Stigma

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Twenty media-reported cases of delusions linked to artificial intelligence chatbots. Most had no hallucinations or thought disorder, so the usual psychosis picture may be absent. 🔍 New Lancet Psychiatry Personal View on what clinicians should ask patients. buff.ly/bvIE2vR #Psychosis #Chatbots

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Autistic 14-year-olds report lower school wellbeing than classmates in the Millennium Cohort Study. 🔍 The gap disappears once bullying, peer problems and academic self-concept are controlled for. Cross-sectional data. buff.ly/pIFD0kk #Autism #SchoolWellbeing

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

When women slept less than usual in pregnancy or after birth, their anxiety tended to rise afterwards. Not the reverse. 😴 Within-person data from 231 women over four timepoints. Observational with modest effects. buff.ly/zkBJwlD #PerinatalMentalHealth #Sleep

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Teen suicide risk assessment tends to centre on trauma. In 2,161 teens, lots of everyday life events were linked to suicidal ideation after adjusting for maltreatment. ⚠️ Caveat: one questionnaire measured both. buff.ly/r0sUGzO #SuicidePrevention #YouthMentalHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Psychotic depression is linked with more relapse and readmission than depression without psychosis, in a review of 41 studies. 🔁 Mostly observational and no meta-analysis, but it's a case for follow-up beyond recovery. buff.ly/fPyWDBz #PsychoticDepression #Psychosis

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Would fewer blood tests mean more people get clozapine? 🩸 A UK cohort of 1,025 long-term users switched to 12-weekly monitoring. 🔬 No agranulocytosis over a median of 4 years. ⚠️ But no control group, and a low-risk sample. buff.ly/aVAwZkC #Clozapine #Schizophrenia

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Network meta-analysis of 74 trials finds varenicline the most effective smoking cessation treatment for people with severe mental illness. 🚭 Yet it is prescribed less often than nicotine replacement therapy. buff.ly/lsmpb5B #SevereMentalIllness #SmokingCessation

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Microbiome headlines are running ahead of the evidence. 🔬 New study of 29 healthy young adults links oral and gut bacteria to self-rated immune fitness. Cross-sectional, no confounders, so no causal claims. buff.ly/A56vafb #Microbiome #ImmuneHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

58,000 adults in US substance use services. Women had higher odds of anxiety, depression and trauma diagnoses. Men had higher odds of psychosis, in the opioid and cannabis groups. ⚖️ Not more comorbidity, a different kind. buff.ly/BqWqFeC #Addiction #MentalHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Suicide risk prediction is often written off as no better than chance. 🔎 A review of 167 models says that verdict isn't evidence-based: five held up in external validation, though over 90% were never tested elsewhere. buff.ly/HTJANUf #SuicidePrevention #MentalHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Detained boys with conduct disorder and limited prosocial emotions had more school exclusions, lower treatment engagement and more peers with custody histories. 🤝 That points at context as much as the individual. buff.ly/zfY8ZWb #ConductDisorder #YouthJustice

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Systematic review of 32 studies asks whether climate disasters hit disadvantaged groups hardest. 18 said yes, 9 found no difference. Mostly cross-sectional, mostly cyclones, almost nothing from low income countries 🌍 buff.ly/2gNXW5z #ClimateJustice #MentalHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Have YOU ever written for The Mental Elf? buff.ly/hxX0Cjy

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Reposted by The Mental Elf

Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

The official 3 month report has some MH measures (no change): www.esafety.gov.au/sites/defaul...

esafety.gov.au

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Young people in the UK were asked what they make of tools that predict depression and anxiety. 🔍 Cautious openness in these interviews, but they wanted to know what data feeds the model and who sees it. buff.ly/UQ9jS5S #YouthMentalHealth #DataPrivacy

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

130,000 people, 43 years of follow-up, diet remeasured throughout. Moderate coffee and tea drinkers had less dementia. Decaf drinkers did not. ☕ Strong cohort work, but it cannot tell us whether the coffee did anything. buff.ly/lUOcjlu #Dementia #Epidemiology

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Metabolic research in severe mental illness has been judged on weight and glucose. 🥗 Asked what should come next, patients, carers and clinicians put psychiatric symptoms and quality of life first. buff.ly/NwciamN #MetabolicPsychiatry #MentalHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Australia's under-16 social media ban, three months on. 86% of under-16s had still used a restricted platform in the past week. 📱 The study didn't measure mental health, the thing the Act was sold on. buff.ly/8RZSEPT #SocialMedia #YouthMentalHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Academic pressure at 15 was linked to more depressive symptoms and slightly higher odds of self-harm years later, in nearly 5,000 ALSPAC participants. Observational, so causation is not established. 📚 buff.ly/HEKdYwB #MentalHealth #YoungPeople

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

ODDESSI, the first randomised trial of Open Dialogue in the NHS, has had a warm reception. Its primary outcome, time to first relapse, was null. 🌳 The admission and re-referral findings are secondary. Interesting, but secondary. buff.ly/mp8StLn #OpenDialogue #CrisisCare

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Reposted by The Mental Elf

Radio Lento @radiolento.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

A new Lento milestone - 300 episodes! 🎂 In total 205 hours of quiet from real places From 26 counties, 127 different locations Always made with love by us ❤️ Free for everyone to listen Thanks to supporters who help us cover our increasing hosting and production costs > ko-fi.com/radiolento

Old building in Ipswich, painted cream. Wooden beams and latticed windows. Old street sign says 'Silent Street'.

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

New review of 266 studies finds IPS and Housing First work for mental illness, but only 8% of research studies checked if they work equally well across gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic status. buff.ly/hwDznGo #MentalHealth #HealthInequalities

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Most mums learned to recognise and escape domestic violence and abuse within two years of For Baby's Sake. Most dads still hadn't admitted their own violence. 🌱 A longitudinal look at whole-family support's limits. buff.ly/9i0GVDX #DomesticAbuse #ChildWelfare

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

A new study finds parents more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health disorder in the months after their child is. Correlation, not causation: genetics, environment and caregiving stress are all plausible drivers. buff.ly/wI4DRnY #ChildMentalHealth #Parenting #PostnatalMentalHealth

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Reposted by The Mental Elf

Policy Research Unit in Addictions @nihr-pruaddictions.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

New research from @glasgow.ac.uk and @nihr-pruaddictions.bsky.social estimates #gambling participation and harms for England's lower-tier local authorities, including higher-risk activities and harms from other people’s gambling. 🔗 tinyurl.com/3y32xa82 #GamblingHarms #PublicHealth #NIHR #LocalGov

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

💷 A Danish study of 5.3m people found something stark: the same relative risk means very different numbers of physical illnesses. 716 extra COPD cases per 100k among the poorest with a mental illness, vs 337 among the richest. buff.ly/QWglKzh #MentalHealth #Poverty

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

New meta-ethnography of 805 ADHD youth across 11 countries: paediatric-to-adult handover described as a cliff edge, not a pathway. Long waits and patchy provider knowledge make it worse. buff.ly/x0TXJvg #ADHD #MentalHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Only 55% of people with severe mental illness get an annual physical health check. 🩺 A new review of 12 studies found little robust evidence, though case management (2 studies) showed an early positive signal. #SevereMentalIllness #PhysicalHealth buff.ly/5UFhhpP

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

The July Mental Elf Monthly is OUT NOW: "What Did We Get Wrong?" Please share with anyone you might benefit from the latest mental health research updates 🙏🏽 #MentalHealth #ElfHelp #Research national-elf-service.kit.com/posts/mental...

national-elf-service.kit.com

Mental Elf Monthly: What Did We Get Wrong?

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Chronic inflammation and a single immune challenge don't dent motivation the same way. Long-term inflammation cut effort for reward; a one-off immune hit blunted how motivating bigger rewards felt. Two mechanisms, not one. buff.ly/zKBgmGb #Immunopsychiatry #MentalHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Peer support workers want to help people recover. Low pay, thin funding and blurry job boundaries often get in the way, 35 interviews in England show. buff.ly/BBQMo4s #PeerSupport #MentalHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

After Netflix's Adolescence aired, coverage of teens and social media in UK/Irish news got sharply more negative and alarmist, per a new mixed-methods analysis. Balanced reporting dropped. buff.ly/P7iydYO #MediaLiteracy #YouthMentalHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Teenage irritability looks strikingly similar across nine countries, from Bulgaria to the UAE. 🌍 Under 1% of the variation was down to nationality, individual differences like gender mattered more. buff.ly/3SorRSH #Irritability #GlobalMentalHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Semaglutide cut weight by around 11kg in people with schizophrenia, per a new meta-analysis, without destabilising mental health. But the evidence is just 3 trials, 258 people, and tirzepatide for weight loss in schizophrenia has zero published trials. buff.ly/6Vcqa0w #Schizophrenia #Semaglutide

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

👶 The riskiest window for depression isn't birth, it's the fortnight after. A global meta-regression correcting for measurement bias puts postpartum MDD at 8.3% in week two, staying elevated all year. buff.ly/YE0PvxT #PerinatalMentalHealth #GlobalHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Could a body clock app catch a mood episode before it starts? A year-long trial found pairing a circadian app with a Fitbit cut mood relapse in depression and bipolar disorder. buff.ly/8c3smsh #MentalHealth #Bipolar #Depression #RelapsePrevention #DigitalMentalHealth

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

A third of people with schizophrenia don't respond to antipsychotics, and we can't predict who. 🔬 A new mega-analysis links brain metabolite differences to treatment response. 🎯 Could this help personalise care? buff.ly/4WuGy2t #Psychosis #Schizophrenia

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

CBT dominates depression guidelines. Is that because it works best, or because it's been studied most? 🛋️ A new Norwegian RCT finds short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy matched CBT in routine outpatient care. buff.ly/5yeKf0a #Depression #Psychotherapy

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

New narrative inquiry: Windrush Generation elders often stayed silent about the racism they faced, not to avoid it, but to protect their children. Researchers call it intergenerational resistance over intergenerational trauma. buff.ly/n1GlIfo #Windrush #RacialTrauma

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

New podcast: Eileen Joyce and Trevor Robbins remember Sue Iversen, the scientist who fused psychopharmacology and neuropsychology. Previews a tribute session at BAP's Summer Meeting in Birmingham next week. #BAP2026 buff.ly/BKbBnRe

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

New 13-year study: violence's health effects show little sign of fading. 📊 ELSA data on 6,171 English adults 50+ found violence exposure linked to depression and long-term illness throughout, with no narrowing of the gap. #HealthyAgeing #PublicHealth buff.ly/Pne03Lp

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Jo Higman @johigman.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

If you're interested in mental health research / young people's mental health, check out these interviews from my @institutemh.org.uk colleagues and @thementalelf.bsky.social ⬇️

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Hearing a therapist say "I've been there too" can have a big impact. 🤝 A new experimental study finds that when therapists share that they've had the same condition and come through it, clients see a model of who they could become. buff.ly/cE9OlDm #Therapy #LivedExperience #Disclosure

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